Growth Kinetics and Formation of Uniform Self-Assembled InAs/GaAs Quantum Dots at

Abstract

We discuss the growth kinetics of InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) using two different InAs deposition rates, relatively fast growth rate of 0.22 ML/sec and slow growth rate of 0.054 ML/sec. With increasing InAs deposition amount to 3.0 ML, the QD density was almost constant after 2D to 3D island transition at the slow deposition rate while the QD density kept increasing and the QD size distribution was relatively broad at the fast growth rate. After the 2D to 3D transition, at the slow growth rate, further deposited In adatoms seemed to incorporate primarily into already formed islands, and thus contribute to equalize island size. The photoluminescence (PL) full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of 2.5 ML InAs QDs at 0.054 ML/sec was 23 meV at 78K. The PL characteristics of InAs/GaAs QDs were degraded significantly after thermal annealing at 550 oC for 3 hours.